NATIONAL PARK — Midge McMullen not only knows where she was when news reached her of the attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago, she also was able to accurately guess what her husband, a World War II Navy veteran who served in the Pacific, had been doing at the time.

They were both 14.

“I was at my friend’s house, and we were getting ready for a dance,” said McMullen, a Woodbury resident. “We were just so shocked — there’s no other word for it. My father was in the Merchant Marines at the time.”

She then turned to her husband, Ray McMullen, one of three World War II veterans honored at Friday’s Pearl Harbor Day ceremony at Red Bank Battlefield Park, the borough’s first such organized observance of the attack in at least a dozen years.

“We were all just kids then,” she said, looking at him. “You were probably out hanging on a corner when you heard about it.”

“Yeah,” he said. You’re probably right.”

They were two of a small group of residents who huddled under umbrellas and leafless trees in the cold 9 a.m. rain to honor the memory of the 2,340 U.S. military members and 48 civilian personnel killed — as well as the 1,178 total wounded — in the surprise Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.

Veterans of Foreign Wars District 13 Commander George Spink organized the push to bring the remembrance day back to National Park, stating he will work to expand the event next year.

“My father was a World War II veteran, and he was a hero of mine, and I know that all those who served are heroes to everyone,” said Spink, speaking before the crowd assembled at the park. “We’re going to make it bigger next year, and the year after that — if I have to come out every year and do it myself, I’ll do it.”

Thursday’s observances were the first ever to be held at Red Bank Battlefield Park, which is significant, according to Paul Naphy, an Army-Navy union representative who attended the ceremony.

“It’s appropriate because after Pearl Harbor, during World War II, this was the site of a field artillery base,” said Naphy following the ceremony. “All these stones in the ground were from anti-aircraft guns set up right here.”

Gloucester County Director of Veterans Affairs Duane Sarmiento stated the attack on the naval base, the final push that landed the United States in World War II, “changed the course of history and challenged the resiliency of the American people.”

“The first wave of the attack came at 7:55 local time, the second wave came at 8:55 — within two hours, it was all over,” said Sarmiento. “Everyone who experienced hearing the news for the first time, you all remember where you were at the time, and your parents all knew that war was coming.

“Tom Brokaw said it, and I think no one here would dispute, that they are the Greatest Generation.”

Freeholder Deputy Director Joe Chila carried on the same theme, thanking the veterans present for making it possible for him to serve in 2012.

“Without you, the Greatest Generation, I wouldn’t be able to be here right now, serving as an elected freeholder,” he said. “When you speak to some kids now, they don’t really understand these things.”